Shia militia leader threatens Turkey with attacks

Shia militia leaders talk tough on the presence of Turkish troops in Kurdish controlled areas of northern Iraq.

Now it's important notice that:

1) Militia leaders often talk tough on the issues pertaining to the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region too and the Turkish deployment follows clashes between the peshmerga and the militias in a town of Tuz Khurmatu in November.

2) There is a widespread belief among the Iran's top brass and the Shia in Iraq and elsewhere that Turkey along with Saudi Arabia is secretly supporting the ISIS

3) There is another view popular with members of Shia militias that the US is not really interested in defeating the ISIS and occasional friendly fire incidents during which coalition aircrafts strike the Iraqi army/Shia militia positions are deliberate attacks. Turkey of course is a member of the US led NATO and American and other Western politicians have a clear preference for the Kurds. The last fact is reflected in repeated calls to arm the peshmerga in defiance of the protestations of the Iraqi government.

The combined effect of these factors appears to be leading to a specific confrontation in the region pitting the Kurds supported by Turkey and the West against the Shia militias largely supported with Iran and the weak Iraqi government whose authority is often overshadowed by the power of militias.

This future of this particular DOOMMM cycle (escalation spiral) looks quite bright due the consistency of many of the antagonisms between the Shia Iran and Iraqi militias on one hand and the Sunni Turkey and Kurds on the other. In many regards, Shia militias and Kurdish peshmerga act as the US led coalition's ground forces against the ISIS. The Shia militias may be cooperating somewhat reluctantly but they still do the heavy lifting on the fighting against the ISIS on other frontlines in Iraq. If the current escalation degenerates into an active confrontation between the peshmerga and the Shia militias, the US-led anti-ISIS coalition may quite literally find itself hanging in the air.

BY SAIF HAMEED (Baghdad, Reuters, Dec 10 2015) {

In the Iraqi parliament on Wednesday, a motion condemning the Turkish intervention was approved unanimously, supporting the government in taking whatever measures it viewed as appropriate.

Several MPs suggested Iraq could wage "economic war" on Turkey, but Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesman for one of the Shi'ite armed groups, Kata'ib Hezbollah, said violence was likely.

"We say that they military option is still probable and we might reach a stage in the next few days where we start carrying out operations against the Turks, be it against their soldiers or Turkish interests in Iraq."

[...]

Badr Brigade spokesman Karim al-Nuri likened the Turkish incursion with the occupation of Iraq by Islamic State militants and said "all options" were available.

"We have the right to respond and we do not exclude any type of response until the Turks have learned their lesson," Nuri said. "Do they have a dream of restoring Ottoman greatness? This is a great delusion and they will pay dearly because of Turkish arrogance."

Source: Shi'ite militias threaten Turkey over incursion into Iraq }